


there's a new tomorrow

by wombathos



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cobra Kai (Web Series) Spoilers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Missing Scene, can be read as either platonic or romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28517226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wombathos/pseuds/wombathos
Summary: *Season 3 Cobra Kai spoilers*Daniel and Johnny confront Kreese. Then they open a dojo together. This is what happens in between. Missing scenes for 3x10.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso & Johnny Lawrence, Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 10
Kudos: 179





	there's a new tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> so I binged cobra kai and my brain would not let me sleep until I posted this and here we are (I may actually try to edit it in the morning). as the tags show, this does have a pretty strong lawrusso bend but it can also be read as platonic filling in the blanks of what happened after that last confrontation. hope you enjoy!

They left.

There was nothing else to do, not after Robby told them to do so. Johnny watched them all the way as they retreated, standing next to Kreese as if he were standing guard. At first Johnny thought he should be heading to his car, then he realised he wasn’t. Probably something about all the getting punched that was messing with his mind.

He ended up next to LaRusso, Miguel seeming to have uncertainly trailed him there and the girl several paces away. The dojo was out of sight now, which was a relief since every time he had turned back, he could feel as much as see Robby’s resentful gaze on him. Such a smart kid. So much smarter than Johnny had been. How the fuck had he ended up with Kreese? How badly could Johnny possibly have messed him up?

“You should get that looked at.”

Johnny blinked, then turned to the sound of the familiar voice. He felt like he was drunk, but without the pleasantly numb sensation. That usually lessened the sting of having the shit beaten out of you. He rubbed his forehead as his gaze settled on LaRusso, leaning against a car - his own? - and watching Johnny with a frown as he toyed with his keys.

“Sensei?” asked Miguel from behind them. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” muttered Johnny, rubbing some more. “I just need -” _Just need a drink._ “Need to sleep.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Miguel. “Where’s your car?”

“No,” said LaRusso, holding a hand up. “You shouldn’t be driving. Can I - would you let me take you to the hospital?”

“No,” said Johnny. LaRusso scrunched up his face in that way he always did, eyes narrowing as he considered Johnny. Focusing on LaRusso like that, everything around him seemed pretty blurry. Made it hard to stand straight, but he needed to - “I don’t need some doctor poking at me, telling me what I already know. Which is that I just need to sleep it off.”

“Maybe Mister LaRusso is right,” said Miguel, sounding hesitant. And nervous. When had Miguel gotten all _Mister LaRusso_ on him anyway? “What did that asshole even do to you?”

“Nothing I didn’t give him back twice as hard.”

LaRusso snorted, making his face about five times as punchable. “All right, tough guy. If you won’t go to the hospital, at least let me drive you and Miguel home. You - you’re not even standing straight.”

“Mom’s a nurse,” added Miguel, apparently addressing LaRusso because it wasn’t like Johnny had forgotten something like that. “She can take a look at him.”

“That’s good, Miguel,” said LaRusso in that warm voice he got when he was talking to children. “Johnny’s probably right that he’ll sleep it right off. But it’s best to be safe.” That was - it was kind of annoying how good he was at that, being nice without being a patronising dipshit about it like he often was to Johnny. Not least because Johnny hadn’t ever known how to talk to kids. Looking back, he had to admit that the guy maybe wasn’t a _terrible_ mentor for Robby. At least not as bad as -

Fuck.

Johnny did his best to focus on LaRusso, who might as well have never stopped looking at him, gaze all expectant. Worry lines creasing his face as much as blatant exhaustion, even as his mouth quirked, just a bit. He looked drained - and couldn’t Johnny ever relate to that. He looked like he was expecting Johnny to put up more resistance, maybe even like he was expecting a fight he had no energy for. Because that was what they did, wasn’t it? They fought and they made peace and just when they had they couldn’t stop themselves from fighting again. But Johnny was just so _tired_.

“Fine.”

LaRusso’s eyebrows rose, then he managed a proper smile. “Great,” he said and a moment later the car was waking up beside them, the sound of the doors unlocking and the lights flickering to life. So LaRusso was still square enough to not be leaning against some stranger’s car. He opened the door on the driver’s side and Johnny swayed where he stood, trying to remember how to find the passenger’s side. LaRusso made a quickly aborted movement towards him, then his gaze flicked behind him. Seconds later, Miguel was at his side, leading him gently around the car.

“Sam? Could you -”

“Yeah, ‘course.”

And then the car door was being opened and he got in, just about remembering to fasten his seatbelt on the own. LaRusso lowered himself in next to Johnny as the two kids got in behind. Johnny stared straight ahead through the glass, but he could still feel the guy’s presence next to him, getting the engine revving and waiting responsibly for the kids to fasten their own seatbelts. For how much LaRusso and Johnny said they hated each other, they spent a weird amount of time in cars together.

With how dark it was, looking straight-ahead he could practically see more of the interior of the car than he could of whatever was outside. The kids in the back, Miguel having reached out so he was holding the girl’s hand. So that was happening again, was it?

What had Miguel said? They had brought everyone together, to _bury the hatchet_ , before Cobra Kai showed up and behaved like a bunch of assholes. He had set them on the path of becoming bullies and Kreese had finished the job - _finish it, finish it, finish it_ , like he always said. And he’d saved the worst for last.

They had started driving by now, LaRusso taking the car at a steady pace with both hands on the wheel like a pussy, but maybe that wasn’t too bad with the kids in the back. Johnny couldn’t even believe Miguel had managed to convince Carmen to let him leave, but he had probably called the LaRusso kid the moment Johnny had left. Maybe that had been how LaRusso found out, or maybe he had had the exact same thought as Johnny. Yeah, just wanted to beat the shit out of Kreese and get him to leave their damn kids alone. But that would just mean Ali was right about the whole them having more in common than they thought and that was too much to deal with tonight.

“Sorry about not getting there sooner.”

The words had been spoken softly, enough so that it took Johnny a moment to even register them and another to look over at LaRusso, who still had his eyes firmly on the road except when he briefly met Johnny’s eyes, lips pressed in a thin line but the concern on his face oddly genuine. Too much to deal with tonight.

“No,” said Johnny. “It wasn’t - I had him handled. But then Robby…”

A pause. “Yeah. I’m… I’m sorry about that too.”

They were speaking softly enough that Johnny wasn’t sure if the kids were listening, but they probably were. They weren’t saying anything themselves and the traffic wasn’t loud this late and the drive had become peaceful like the best drives were, except it wouldn’t be long until he had to leave this car - and have to face the bite of the night’s cold air and Carmen concerning herself with wounds that probably looked way worse than they were and eventually his desolate apartment.

How nice would it be if Daniel just kept driving. They could give off the kids where they would be warm and safe and Johnny would briefly be woken up by the doors opening and shutting and letting the chill in - and then it would be just the two of them, hitting the road once again as Johnny complained about the slow driving and Daniel made that huffy face and eventually the gentle motion of the car would sent him to sleep and when he woke up they would be far, far away from here.

But that would be running away. And Johnny couldn’t do that any more.

“I hurt him,” he said. At least Robby had gotten back to his feet, at least he hadn’t… Seeing him standing there with Kreese couldn’t compare to what it would have been like for him to never get up again at all. “He was attacking me and I just…” He made a vague motion like a push, then his hands curled into fists and fell limply to his lap.

“It happens,” said LaRusso, having apparently discovered his non-judgemental side. Couldn’t last for long. “It’s surprisingly hard not to hurt someone badly when they’re attacking you.”

“You managed all right.”

“Yeah, well… Mister Miyagi had a few more tricks to offer after all.”

It was Johnny’s turn to snort - and he didn’t miss LaRusso shooting him another quick look and a half-smile along with it. Shit, they had to go back to shouting at each other soon enough.

“Almost there,” said LaRusso as he took the next bend. “Still sure you’re not going to collapse on me?”

“Beat it, LaRusso.”

LaRusso chuckled. “I’m hurt. I thought we’d gotten to Daniel.”

Oh. They had, hadn’t they?

“Beat it, Daniel.”

* * *

For all his love of karate, Daniel was getting really, really sick of seeing his daughter injured. Thank god Anthony had been sleeping over at that rowdy friend’s place again, who was rowdy in a normal, loud and somewhat hyperactive fashion, not in a ‘one step away from attempted murder’ way some of these kids were getting at.

All the Cobra Kai kids were gone, which was good since Daniel really didn’t want to get in the habit of assaulting children. Miguel had left, citing his nurse mom who would be better placed to provide care than anyone there and getting a lift from one of the other ‘Eagle Fang’ kids. They had mostly left with him except for a horribly tiny kid with a nasty set of bruise huddled next to their own tiny kid, Nathaniel, arms half-entwined. Sam was doing a pretty good job at tending to the wounds, which was impressive given just how much she was shaking.

It was her Amanda rushed to first as Daniel hung back, surveying the hurt children and the carnage surrounding them. A part of him really, really wanted to take the Amanda-route and see if they couldn’t sue these kids to shit for assault with a bonus few charges in the sheer amount of property damage they had caused. Yeah, he knew it was Kreese’s fault the kids were acting like this, but there had to be a line _somewhere_ , right? Not too long ago and he’d been fine with pricing out Johnny Lawrence from that damned dojo with pretty much no provocation, now he wasn’t even going to do anything about… this.

He wasn’t going to do anything? Really?

“It’s all right, sensei,” said Demetri, with an impressive amount of bravado for a boy who had freaked out when Daniel as much as tapped him a few months back, “no one got hurt too bad.”

“That’s good,” came the automatic response, which was obviously bullshit. None of this was _good_.

Why did this always happen? Why was it that any time him and Johnny managed to spend more than five minutes not at each other’s throats, actually seemed to figure things out even, it seemed like he’d come home and everything would go to shit? Would none of this ever get _better_?

“I’m okay, dad,” said Sam, having spotted him staring at her. Amanda was still crouching next to her, wet cloth taken from Chris used to dab gently at her wound. She didn’t look actively horrified at least, which maybe was a depressing sign of how used she was getting to seeing her daughter beat up.

“What happened?” he asked, voice raspy.

“Cobra Kai attacked,” said Demetri. “They threw Bert here through the window and then attacked from all sides. Somehow they must have found out we were having the Eagle Fang kids over, or maybe they just got lucky. Eventually they retreated when we beat them. Eli switched sides, it was pretty cool.”

_Who is Eli again? And why were Johnny’s students here anyway?_ “Did anyone get seriously hurt?”

“Don’t think so. Nothing worse than usual, anyway. I’m sorry about all the stuff we broke. It just was kind of… hard to avoid.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“We need to get these kids home,” said Amanda.

“Yeah, yeah, I should…”

“Dad?”

Daniel’s gaze instantly jumped to the sound of his daughter’s concerned voice. She was looking down at her phone. “What is it?”

“Miguel says his sensei is going after Kreese.”

Of course.

Daniel took a deep breath that hitched towards the end, able to picture only to easily Johnny’s fury at Miguel’s wounds. He had blamed him for Kreese even being in their lives - and Johnny had always been clear on how he considered Kreese _his_ responsibility. And now…

He swallowed. His eyes met Amanda’s.

“Go,” she said, understanding him as perfectly as she had ever done. “I’ll handle the kids.”

Daniel nodded, throat too tight to speak. He turned to leave.

“Dad, wait! I should -”

“Stay here, Sam. I’ve got this.”

And then he was rushing out, back into the night, in the car almost before he knew it. He had told Kreese he’d stay true Mister Miyagi’s teachings and not throw that first punch, but if _Johnny_ did so, who was he to stand back? And if that piece of shit had hurt Johnny…

Daniel sped up even further as he reached the open road. He was going to _destroy_ Kreese before he let the monster keep hurting people he cared about.

* * *

The Diaz’s living room was getting decidedly crowded, with Johnny on the couch and Carmen administering his wounds while her mother was making conversation with the awkwardly hovering LaRusso’s near the door. Well, LaRusso _Sr_ was hovering awkwardly - the girl was leaning into Miguel and looking like she didn’t care all too much about who saw it.

“You’re probably not going to die,” said Carmen.

Johnny snorted. “Thanks.”

“I’m being serious,” said Carmen, looking serious. “You have to stop getting beaten up like this. Especially as you get older, you won’t always recover.”

“You should see the other guy.”

Carmen just sighed.

“He’ll be fine?” asked LaRusso, probably less to confirm whether he was actually going to recover and more as an excuse to get lost. Johnny had figured he was going to get dumped on the doorstep, not that he’d given it much thought at all. Given that LaRusso had sort of saved his ass, maybe he did want to make sure Johnny wouldn’t just drop dead. “Kreese was choking him. That couldn’t have…” He trailed off.

_Just like back then_. Johnny looked at LaRusso then, found LaRusso looking back, the memory hanging between them. Back then, Miyagi had saved him, now LaRusso had done the same. Twice his sensei had come close to killing him, twice he had needed to look to his supposed enemies for salvation.

“It was lucky you arrived when you did,” said Carmen, sighing again as she began cleaning up her medical equipment. “I will check him again in the morning.”

LaRusso nodded. “Get some sleep,” he said to Johnny, who couldn’t even muster the energy for some rude retort. “And then, tomorrow…” He paused. “I’d like to talk. If you’re up for it.”

Johnny felt his eyebrows rise, which sort of hurt. He was still half-expecting the shouting to start again, but maybe that would come when they were alone. “Sure,” he said, not knowing how else to respond. “You know where to find me.”

The half smile returned. “Yeah,” said LaRusso. “I do.”

* * *

Daniel didn’t sleep much. Even once all the kids were returned safely to their homes and Sam retreated to her room, he knew he was getting restless in a way that could last for hours or even days if he wasn’t careful. Amanda looked exhausted but didn’t protest when he stayed in the living room as she went up to sleep, except to make him promise that he wasn’t going to get started with any of the cleaning up until tomorrow. “If you start, you’ll stay up all night,” she had said. “And you’ll need your energy for tomorrow.”

She wasn’t wrong. But Daniel also wasn’t feeling much like waking up to tomorrow.

On the ride home, Sam had filled him in on some of the missing details about the evening. Apparently, Sam and Miguel together had concocted their scheme of bringing together Miyagi-Do and ‘Eagle Fang’ (no, he wasn’t getting over that name) to join forces against Cobra Kai. She looked pretty sheepish when she told him about the whole merging dojos thing. Daniel couldn’t figure out whether to laugh or not. Yes, the kids had shown some remarkable maturity and had gotten over their issues way faster than him and Johnny ever had. But the thought of the kids conscripting him to running a dojo together with Johnny Lawrence was also quite frankly insane.

Except if tonight had proven anything, it was that Kreese was their number one priority. And Daniel would have to fight on the same side as Johnny if that meant getting rid of the man. Maybe even trained kids together. It wasn’t _that_ crazy, was it? They had shown over the last year that on occasion, they could get along - at least for a few hours or so. Daniel might even go so far as to say that sometimes they made a pretty good team. And it wasn’t like his students would have _nothing_ to learn from Cobra Kai’s style of karate. Certainly the mentality was all wrong and the philosophy would have to be thrown right out for there to be any chance of collaboration, but given their track record they must be doing something right. And Eagle Fang’s kids would definitely benefit from Mister Miyagi’s teachings.

And then, of course, there was the Robby of it all. If working together helped them reach the kid they had taken turns screwing up with, then it had to be worth it. Even when Robby had beenreleased from juvie, it had been to Daniel and Johnny arguing like an old married couple. Surely, if they could show him that they could change… they could help him to understand that he still had so much to live for, so much more than some bitter old man still stuck in the sixties like Kreese could even imagine.

_If_ Johnny didn’t just laugh him out.

So on the whole, Daniel spent much of the night pacing, worrying about what he was going to say to Johnny. If seeing Robby with Kreese had been a gut punch for _him_ , he could only imagine what it had been like for his dad. But they had to move forwards now, the two of them. Ali had been right about how silly they were. Amanda had been right. Even _he_ knew it, in his more lucid moments, but there was something about being face to face with Johnny that made all rational thought fly right out of the window. Even thinking about the man did as much.

When Amanda came down to a cup of coffee and Daniel slumped in the sole armchair without pieces of glass covering it, she just sighed and shook her head. “So, what’s the plan for today?”

“Checking Sam’s all right. Driving over to pick up Anthony. Start clearing up… this.” He hesitated. “I also wanted to go over to Johnny’s place.”

“Uh huh,” said Amanda, cradling her cup of coffee. “Please tell me you aren’t going to do anything stupid.”

Daniel let out an uneasy laugh. “I don’t know,” he said, “how stupid is asking him to merge our dojos?”

Amanda raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

Which was a mild response, given everything. He leaned back and spread his arms. “It was Sam’s idea. And Miguel’s. That’s why they got all the kids together last night, apparently. They’ve been plotting this all without us.”

“Is that so,” said Amanda with a chuckle. “It’s certainly a bold move.”

“I don’t think it’s a bad one,” said Daniel. “It wouldn’t hurt to work together and… it may be time for Johnny and me to… move on from our past differences.”

Amanda just gave him a look at that.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Daniel said, rubbing his eyes in a futile attempt to make up for lost sleep, “you told me so.”

* * *

“Still not dead?” said LaRusso by way of greeting. Johnny rolled his eyes and let him in. He should’ve gone over to LaRusso’s place instead, get a fancy lunch for free. Sure it was a bit bashed up by the sounds of it, but nothing that would stop Johnny from intruding on their hospitality.

“Make yourself at home,” muttered Johnny, following him further into the flat. Not that there was far to go. He saw LaRusso’s gaze travel over the wall LaRusso had pushed him into a few weeks back, half-tempted to tell him he still had damages to pay for. Probably wouldn’t be the best way to start this off, all things considered. “Want a drink?”

LaRusso turned to give him a look. “Johnny. It’s one in the afternoon.”

Johnny shrugged. “Really effective against the pain,” he said, gesturing at one of the chairs before sinking onto the other one.

“I doubt Carmen would approve of that prescription,” said LaRusso dryly, sitting down. He brought his hands together on the table so that his fidgeting was plainly in sight, then stared at him.

After a few seconds of awkwardness, Johnny cleared his throat. “So,” he said, “you wanted to… talk.”

LaRusso hesitated, then nodded. “I don’t know how much Miguel has told you about last night -”

“You mean about what those little Cobra Kai shits did?”

“That,” said LaRusso with a quirk of the lips, “but also what was going on before. Why all those kids were together in the first place.”

Johnny had indeed gotten a mumbled aside on the topic last night before he had stormed off to the dojo, then had gotten a more detailed summary this morning. He didn’t have the first idea what to think of it, but had laughed when Miguel told him - which seemed to relieve him. What had the kid expected? That Johnny stalk over to LaRusso’s place and demand a duel or something?

Which wouldn’t be entirely a departure from their past behaviour, admittedly.

“He brought it up,” said Johnny, opting to be circumspect.

LaRusso studied him for a moment or two, then when it became clear Johnny wasn’t going to continue, he sighed in irritation. Good. He had come here, he should be the one to actually say whatever he needed to say. “Our students think they would have better chances against Cobra Kai if they worked together,” he said in his most matter-of-fact tone, “and they seem to believe we should work together too.” He briefly inclined his head. “In a shared dojo.”

Johnny nodded slowly, looking around at the table and the walls and the ceiling and eventually at LaRusso himself, who had a twist to his lips that probably showed this wasn’t easy for him either but just made him look sort of constipated. He had known as much himself, but he still wanted LaRusso to tell him what he actually _thought_ before he had to. At some point last night, the idea had become less crazy, which Johnny wanted to chalk up to the pain and his shock over Robby. But now… “And you agree with them?”

LaRusso’s face got a little more scrunched up. It was fun, watching him suffer. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to get to do that every day. “I think they’re right about being more effective together,” he said. “I’m just not sure about _us_.”

And that was the heart of the matter, really. Their students would get over their rivalries. They seemed to be doing a pretty good job of that already. But the two of them?

Sometimes Johnny suspected they were too old to change.

Ah, what the hell. He was getting tired of beating around the bush himself. “You think it would help?” he asked, swallowing before he could properly formulate the question. “With Robby?”

LaRusso’s eyes widened with that horribly excessive sympathy he sometimes just sent people’s way without warning. He pursed his lips, taking a moment to formulate his response. “I think,” he said slowly, “it might be the best chance we have. And I certainly think we’ve pretty much exhausted our options of making things better on our own.”

Johnny wished he could tell him he was wrong. But how could he? He was pretty much out of ideas, and not just when it came to Robby. And if it really _might_ be the only way to still get to Robby… what could he say? What else could he do?

He wanted to crack some dumb joke, but again he just wasn’t feeling it. The only way was forwards and the only path to take was…

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “I guess… Yeah. If it’s for Robby. For all of them… yeah, I could do that. Even with you.”

LaRusso inhaled sharply, clearly not having expected this little resistance. Johnny half-expected him to back out now that the chips were on the table like this. Better to let Johnny be the obstinate one, right? But they had apparently both reached the same conclusion, a little later than the kids had, and probably in pretty different ways. “Good,” he said and Johnny had no clue whether he meant it or not. “Then let’s try.”

He looked solemn as he stretched out his hand for Johnny to shake. Johnny raised an eyebrow but followed suit, the handshake half-over the table at an awkward angle. Still, LaRusso’s hand was warm and firm in his own, and they held on a little longer than was strictly necessary, eyes not leaving the other. Made it feel more real, somehow.

When that was all done with and LaRusso was getting ready to leave, he smiled at Johnny again. He was doing that _way_ too much recently, just sort of unsettled Johnny. “You know, the students all agree we should be using Miyagi-Do to train.”

“Yeah?” retorted Johnny. “But they still haven’t agreed on a name yet!”

“It’s not going to be _Eagle Fang_.”

“And it’s not going to be Miyagi-Do either.”

LaRusso just kept smiling. “No, I guess not.” He made for the door, but still lingered. “We’ll figure something out. And we’ll be expecting you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Tomorrow.”

* * *

Even when the time came, a sizeable part of Daniel thought they weren’t going to show. Never mind that Miguel had messaged Sam to confirm, never mind that he had gotten Johnny’s agreement far easier than he had dared hope for - when it came down to it, this still felt too crazy to be real. Too huge a step they had taken too easily. It probably wasn’t going to be permanent, or even long-lasting, and might end in chaos by the end of the hour with Johnny and Daniel at each other’s throats, but it might _not_. And what then?

Even when the first of Johnny’s students trooped in, settling beside their friends as natural as if they’d always been there, some part of Daniel still wondered whether they had come alone, whether their sensei had decided to send them off without him and spend the day drinking instead in some den, heart-broken over Robby. He couldn’t honestly say he even would have blamed him. But there was Johnny, striding towards him with a certainty that Daniel couldn’t even hope to match but was trying to project. For the sake of his students, he told himself, not to impress Johnny.

Here they were. _Their_ students, addressing the _both_ of them as sensei. And there they were, facing each other, bowing to each other, eyes meeting in a shared determination to make this work. To show their students the respect they were going to have towards each other, from now on. Moving forward. Yes, the details still had to be worked out; yes, it wasn’t going to be easy. But they were here, for now. And that was enough to build from.

_We’ve both had less_.

As one, Daniel and Jonny turned to face their students.


End file.
